The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Caladium plant, botanically known as Caladium×hortulanum, commercially referred to as a lance leaf-type Caladium and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Rio Red’.
The objective of the Inventor's breeding program is to create new Caladium plants that have uniform plant habit, exceptional container and garden performance and attractive foliage coloration.
The new Caladium plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in April, 2008 in Avon Park, Fla. of Caladium×hortulanum ‘Florida Red Ruffles’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,136, as the female, or seed, parent with Caladium×hortulanum ‘Gingerland’, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Caladium plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Zolfo Springs, Fla. in September, 2009.
Asexual reproduction of the new Caladium plant by ‘chipping’ the tubers (cutting the tuber into segments each segment containing an axillary bud and tuber cortical tissue) in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Zolfo Springs, Fla. since March, 2010 has shown that the unique features of this new Caladium plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.